Lady Otter Latté wrote:And, this is why Tech Talk has its own special section. As with The Octagon, its subject matter is best talked about behind closed doors so we do not scare the normal people away.

"normal people"We nerds are the normal ones, the rest of the people are just weird.

Lady Otter Latté wrote:And, this is why Tech Talk has its own special section. As with The Octagon, its subject matter is best talked about behind closed doors so we do not scare the normal people away.

Normal? On a tech site Geeks are the norm LOL. As Zen will verify we have hardly started being as Geeky as we are capable of. Want to know about the seven layer OSI model? Joking aside for a tech forum we are pretty nice to non technical people compared to how we would argueamong ourselves.

Uh, gee, thanks, Zed, but I will pass on knowing more about the seven layer OSI model. I am still trying to figure out the intricacies of seven-layer dip and the best chips to use with it, ya know? Serously, I appreciate it whenever you guys take the time to good-naturedly walk us non-nerds through something. You are such good sports. Gracias!

OMFG this thread has to be the funniest thing I have read all week. I have stayed away from logging on lately but just had to so I could comment.

Here is my simple way of teaching it.

You have the post office connecting your house to others (internet)Inside of your house (IP address)You have a filing cabinet (computer)In there you have files (packets)In those you have letters (bytes)That have words on them (bits)

If you want to say something to someone else in the world (request a; webpage, picture on a page, send an email, etc.), you right words on a letter in your filling cabinet, in your house and put them in the mail. Now here is the different part. You have to tell the mailman that you have something to send and he has to agree to take it. So your filling cabinet (unbeknownst to you) sends out files to the mailman letting him know were you live and in return he sends you files letting you know that he got your files. Then the mailman and everyone on your street/ town/ city/ state/ continent starts talking to your filing cabinet. If your internet is working, you should always receive more requests than you send out. If your internet is not working, than no one responds to your files and only your modem (router) sends you stuff so you send more than you receive.